Happiness Promotes Health!

B'SD

6 Adar, 5775

My vacation time is charging up my batteries: I've helped a young man to receive some seriously needed home services and necessary information about his orphan disease (it's included in the book's Global Resources section). I helped a woman with Fibromyalgia, Spinal Stenosis and a few other medical issues, plus I  helped other peope who simply happened to interact with me for other reasons.

I'm raring to go forward with fun! I've enjoyed some theater, a concert, get-togethers with friends and other good times.

Last night I enjoyed a community-wide Mission from GOD Mexican Burritos Dinner at a local soup kitchen. Our pre-paid meals supported the local soup kitchen that feeds people so poor that they lack proper clothing and medical care, job skills, food, etc. It made a terrific prelude to PURIM.

​It was fun. I've attached 2 photos to show me and my dinner. The heaping helpings were home made and delicious. I'd never had cashew salsa before and it was OUTSTANDING!



The crowd held local professors, chemists, writers, other professionals and non-professionals, plus children of all ages squashed up together, with everybody having a good time as we bounced along to salsa music, Jewish music and some hand-clapping.

 

Here's a look at my dinner (first time I've shared a food photo online).

 

 

Purim is about to happen. Here's ​A Purim Primer of Facts You Need to Know​!

Check out ​Purim A-Z​, too!

Fun promotes inner and outer health. When your mind and heart are happy, your body can heal. And your emotions can, too.

Healing is multi-faceted. When a troubling medical or other issue no longer dominates your life, when you choose to indulge in fun despite enduring difficulty or pain, you are healing in many ways. "Cured" is something altogether different.

As I say  in my pubic appearances, "Coping with a medical or mental health challenge beats the alternative!"

Celebrate life. Find fun things to think about, say and do. I dare you!




Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.




Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your life with fun. It makes hardships easier to bear.

Born for Greatness!

B'SD


21 Adar 5772


The attacks on Israel have not stopped. I have spent significant amounts of time speaking with affected people, doing what I can to help them to calm down, to cope, and to cry as necessary.


Tears, trembling and sadness have their place in promoting mental/emotional health. As trauma therapist Miriam Maslin teaches, "Wisdom often means letting go of what was in order to make room for what needs to be."


A person who has been traumatized needs the freedom to express their sorrow, their fears, their sense of betrayal, their grief, their loss and everything else on their mind and heavy heart. That helps them to let go of the trauma, to some degree, then to get beyond it to a measure of peace and increasing productivity.


It is a cruelty to tell someone "Stop shaking like that," or to "Stop crying! Get over it already."


Trembling and crying serve some coping purposes: 


1) To alert observers to a perceived trauma so that they  can provide needed compassion and assistance. YOUR "it's not a trauma" interpretation of someone else's trauma is not necessarily relevant to the sufferer. In that person's mind and heavy heart, something terrible has happened. 


2) To quite literally help the suffering person to release their fear, shock, and other negative reactions, so that they can return to a relatively calm state again.


Trembling and tears are specific signs of emotional turmoil. The person trembling and/or crying needs compassion, not dismissive remarks and behaviors.


There is significant psychological evidence of the above. It is presented in case studies and other materials within the mental health world.


There is also significant evidence that people who can envision themselves overcoming problems do overcome those issues.


If you want to consider the fact that you were born to rise above your problems, born for greatness, this tune just might make you smile with wonder and happiness: Born for Greatness!

Want to know how BIG a part of the awe-inspiring universe YOU are? Click on http://vimeo.com/38101676

If you know of a female who needs extra encouragement to achieve her potential, show her this video









Want more inspiration to overcome a setback? Read EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

A Guaranteed Health Initiative!

B'SD

14 Shvat 5772

An ill, recovering or disabled person tends to have goals. Too often, other people fail to realize that. They over-focus on visible problems, not on the person’s inner self, their soul and spirit. The result: the infantilization of ill, recovering or disabled YOU (i.e., people treat you like a foolish baby or child, or worse – as an incompetent adult).

Here’s a thought that you can share with your unintentionally clueless loved ones and caregivers: We want to gain while helping the other person – YOU - to gain, too. Work WITH me, not AGAINST me, so I can achieve increased emotional, physical and/or spiritual health. That will make me happy - probably healthier - and it'll make you a better care provider!

It’s a safe, loving message, guaranteed to give other people a graceful way to improve their behavior (it’s their choice to make, not yours). 


Print the words out on attractive paper. Decorate it somehow. Display the finished product. Invite the world at large to honor your productive goals.

Let me know how the above suggestion works out for you. I’m off to prepare for Tu B’Shvat festival of trees, now. The 15^th day of the Jewish month of Shvat is quite an important, and fun, occasion. 

 טו בשבט שמח

  Happy Tu Beshvat

(it begins this evening)

Buy the E-book or print edition today to further educate yourself, your loved ones and your medical team for a brighter personal future: YOURS! Click on the words EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

Pizza Time!

B'SD


6 Shvat 5772

One of the themes in

is to make the most of opportunities and the tools available to you. Creative thinking is another motif in the book.


Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRYcDOqJDuA&feature=player_embedded to get an adorable look at how a sincere desire to help can not only save lives, but also make you smile whenever you think about the event. Go ahead, nurture that healing Inner Giggle I mention in the book.


Gosh, I want to make a pizza now...




Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge to save money on health care expenses. Improve your emotional plus physical health in one easy reading. Buy it at Booklocker! 


Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

Healing and Coping with a Giggle

B'SD

23 Tishrei 5772

It's been an exiting start to the new Jewish year! Here's a photo of me in Shilo, the site of the ancient tabernacle (Mishkan in Hebrew) this past week.

Friends and I enjoyed lovely holiday times, company and meals. Here and there someone wept to me about the sadness of a diagnosis or life situation, asking how to cope with life's harsher side. Among other things, I gently explained the wisdom of seeking out pleasure, promoting pleasure and nurturing that Inner Giggle all of us. We yearn to laugh, to be free of worry and fear. By taking on life with a sense of humor, we let ourselves relax, grow courageous, insightful and stronger. Those are coping skills!


Click on this sample of what I mean: The world's first-ever senior citizen LipDub! Residents from Clark Retirement Community in Grand Rapids, Michigan teamed up with Grand Valley State University Film & Video Production students, alumni, and professors to create this sassy video to the jazzy 1965 hit song ‘Feeling Good’ by Michael Bublé. (Hat tip for the video to my good friend Jesica Myers)




Learn how to nurture YOUR Inner Giggle when you read EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.

Let me know if YOU make a fun video that brings smiles to many faces!


Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.